My Love Affair with Gourmet -- Crab Cakes with Spicy Avocado Sauce
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Serves: 4
 
Ingredients
For sauce
  • ½ ripe medium California avocado, pitted and peeled
  • 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon sugar
  • 1 fresh jalapeño or serrano chile (including seeds), stemmed and quartered lengthwise
  • ¼ cup fat-free (skim) milk
For crab cakes
  • 1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat, picked over and coarsely shredded
  • 3 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise
  • ¼ cup minced fresh chives
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ¼ teaspoon black pepper
  • ½ cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
  • 2 garlic cloves, smashed
  • ½ teaspoon herbes de Provence or ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
Make avocado sauce:
  1. Combine avocado, mayonnaise, lime juice, salt, sugar, and one fourth of chile and pulse in a food processor until chile is finely chopped. Add milk and process until smooth. Transfer sauce to a bowl and chill, covered.
Make crab cakes:
  1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F. Place parchment or foil on a large baking sheet.
  2. Stir crabmeat, mayonnaise, chives, lemon juice, mustard, pepper, and 1 tablespoon panko in a large bowl until thoroughly combined.
  3. Melt butter in a medium skillet over moderate heat, add garlic and cook, stirring, until the garlic is golden and starts to smell garlicky, about 2 minutes. Add herbes de Provence, salt, and remaining panko and cook, stirring, until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Discard garlic.
  4. Form crabmeat mixture into six small patties, and carefully turn each patty in the crumb mixture until it is coated. Transfer to a baking sheet. Bake until heated through, about 15 minutes. Serve crab cakes with sauce.
Notes
Gourmet, April 2004
Recipe by The Domestic Front at http://www.thedomesticfront.com/my-love-affair-with-gourmet-crab-cakes-with-spicy-avocado-sauce/